This invention relates to a holding device. The invention has been devised in relation to clothes pegs, although it is to be appreciated that the invention is more widely applicable to holding devices for other purposes, as described hereafter.
Clothes pegs are known which comprise two clamping members pivotally connected to one another and with a spring operable therebetween so as to cause jaw portions of the clamping members to be urged towards one another, for holding a textile article such as an item of clothing to a clothes line by clamping a part of the article and clothes line therebetween. Conventionally, the clamping members have handle portions which extend beyond the pivotal connection of the clamping members to one another so that by gripping the handle portions and displacing them towards one another the jaw portions are moved away from one another to release an article from being held therebetween. Commonly the clamping members are of a plastics material or wood, and both the connection to one another and the spring action are provided by a metal spring which engages them. Such clothes pegs have the disadvantage of comprising separate components which have to be assembled relative to one another, making them expensive to manufacture.
A further known type of clothes peg is integrally moulded from a plastics material of suitably tough and resilient properties, and relies on the resilience of the material to exert sufficient force between jaw portions to be able satisfactorily to hold an article therebetween. While this type of peg can be economically manufactured, it has a disadvantage in that the techniques characteristically used in manufacture thereof, by injection moulding of the plastics material, require a certain space to be provided between the jaw portions. The result is that such a clothes peg cannot satisfactorily hold an article whose size is less than the space between the jaw portions. Further, the possibly movement of the jaw portions away from one another for holding a large article therebetween is limited.
It has been proposed, in EP-0228325-A, that a clothes peg may be integrally moulded from a plastics material and comprise two clamping members each with a jaw portion and a handle portion, pivotally secured to one another by an integral hinge portion. A springing action between the clamping members is provided by spring tongues cut out of the handle portions of the clamping members and bent back to operative positions in which they bear against one another. Again, this peg requires expensive manufacturing operations in addition to the injection moulding of its basic structure.
Further embodiments of clothes peg are disclosed in GB-796846-A, wherein two inter-connected beams or clamping members of plastics material are pivotably secured to one another by an integral hinge portion, while a springing action is provided by at least one auxiliary resilient member which is moulded in one piece with at least one of the beams and is bent to a pre-stressed position in which it presses against the other beam, to supplement the action of the integral hinge bridge. However, the configuration of the integral resilient members is such that they are not readily displaced to their pre-stressed positions. Thus the disclosed pegs are difficult to manufacture and do not have a satisfactory springing action.
Accordingly it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved holding device such as a clothes peg, integrally moulded from a plastics material but wherein the above described disadvantages of previously known holding devices are overcome or reduced.
According to the present invention, I provide a holding device comprising two clamping members; a hinge portion; and a spring element; wherein all the aforesaid parts are integrally moulded from a plastics material and the spring element is connected to one of said clamping members by a mounting portion of sufficiently small cross-section to enable the spring element to be moulded in a position in which apart from said mounting portion it is clear of said clamping members, and thereafter can be moved about said mounting portion to an operative position in which it spring biases the clamping members relative to one another.
In a holding device in accordance with the invention, following manufacture of the device by, preferably, an injection moulding process and removal of the device from the moulding tool, the only further manufacturing operation required is to displace the spring element by pivotal movement about its mounting portion from its as-moulded position to its operative position in which it is able to operate as a spring between the clamping members. No cutting, piercing or like operations are required, and the movement of the spring element to its operative position is facilitated by the reduced cross-sectional dimension of the mounting portion, i.e. the configuration of the mounting portion as a so-called xe2x80x9cliving hingexe2x80x9d.
The displacement of the spring element from its initial, as moulded, position to its operative position may be carried out by automatic machinery or may be carried out manually, e.g. in the course of a packing operation.
Preferably each of the clamping members of a device in accordance with the invention is of elongate configuration, comprising a jaw portion and a handle portion, with the hinge portion joining the two clamping members generally in the mid-region thereof between each jaw portion and handle portion. The spring portion is connected, preferably, to one of said handle portions by its mounting portion at a position remote from the hinge portion.
Preferably the spring element engages the handle portion of the clamping member (other than that to which the spring element is integrally attached by its mounting portion), at a position remote from the hinge portion. The spring element may comprise an engagement portion which is arranged to engage the handle portion of said other clamping member and to retain its position relative thereto in use of the holding device.
Such an engagement portion may be flat, adapted to lie in face-to-face relationship with a complementary substantially flat portion of said other handle portion. Alternatively, or in addition, the engagement portion of the spring element may cooperate with a formation on the other clamping member to hold the spring element in its operative position relative thereto. Preferably such a formation is constituted by a notch or recess formation in the handle portion, engagable by an end portion of the spring element and arranged such that force exerted by the spring element in use urges said end portion into the notch or recess formation.
The spring element and the clamping member to which it is integrally connected by the mounting portion may also have formations which cooperate to hold the spring element in position relative to the clamping member if the mounting portion should for any reason fail.
It would also be within the scope of the invention if some other joining technique, e.g. welding such as ultrasonic welding, were to be utilised to hold the spring element in its operative position relative to one or both of the clamping members after it has been moved into its operative position relative thereto.
There may be stop means for limiting pivotal movement of the clamping members relative to one another in the sense of moving the jaw portions thereof away from one another beyond a predetermined limiting position. Such stop means may be afforded by an abutment which may be on the spring element.
A preferred form of spring element in accordance with the invention is that of a generally V-shaped element, possibly with the two limbs of the V-shaped element being curved so as to diverge increasingly from one another with increasing distance from where they are connected to one another. In this case, a free end of one limb is connected to one of the clamping members by the mounting portion while the free end of the other limb engages the other clamping member when the spring element is in its operative position, while the connection between the limbs of the spring element lies adjacent the hinge portion of the device.
Although, as referred to above, the invention is primarily applicable to a holding device which is a clothes peg, it is applicable to other holding devices of similar or analogous configuration. For example, clamping devices generally may be made in accordance with the invention. One such clamping device to which the invention is applicable is the so-called xe2x80x9ccrocodile clipxe2x80x9d which is used for establishing a temporary electrical connection with an electrical component or device. In this case, the device is required to be provided with a metallic or other electrically conductive element or elements for establishing the electrical connection, e.g. in the jaw portions of the clamping members.
A particular example of such use of a device in accordance with the invention is in the heavy duty connection clips such as are used for connection to the battery terminals in a motor vehicle by jump leads when xe2x80x9cjump startingxe2x80x9d a vehicle whose battery is discharged. The invention enables sufficient force to be applied by the clip to ensure satisfactory electrical connection, but since the clip in accordance with the invention is primarily of plastics material it is unnecessary to provide an additional insulating covering such as is required with metal clips.